Patchy, dry + light coloured lawn

GGareth · May 2023

Hello, This Spring I've noticed my lawn become fairly patchy and the grass itself looking and feeling dry and light brown, quickly since I started mowing in April.

After Winter, I began mowing fortnightly, starting at the highest cut, moving closer and closer as the weeks went on.

The soil itself is quite hard to touch, and not very flat, there's lumps and bumps pretty much all over.

Can anyone help me determine whats going on, and how I can return the lawn to thick green coverage?

bédé · May 2023

It's been a funny spring. Far too dry where I live.

1. You might be cutting too close, too often.

2. You might have been walking on your lawn when frosted.

Lumps and bumps need ironing out. Best to spread a top dressing to fill the hollows. Compost if you've got it.

We would be better able to advise if we knew what the soil was.
Also why the differences in the colour? Is there a lot of moss?

JennyJ · May 2023

It looks to me as if it's been cut too short, and scalped in places (shaved off right down to the roots) particularly that curved brown patch towards the far end in the second pic. That can happen if there's a high spot/ridge. Combined with not enough rain, possibly. And contrary as it might seem, does the side where the grass looks sparser (right side in the first pic) get shaded more by the shrubs etc?

My grass (I hesitate to call it lawn) always starts to look less lush as soon as we've gone a couple of weeks without decent rain even though I don't go below the middle height setting on my mower, and I leave it a little bit longer once the dry weather sets in. It's a rare year when it stays green all summer (I don't waste water on grass). It comes back sooner or later when it gets enough rain.

GGareth · May 2023

Apologies - I've now added soil info to my signature.

Here's some more detail/closer images.

When I say lumps and bumps, its not a rollercoaster. But I think element of truth that the lawn mower might be scalding - so I will try a higher cut next time.

The parts that are growing, grow fast so I think I still need to cut every week or week + half.

The shrubs on the RHS do cast shade (as seen in July 2021 Img) however, I am in the process of cutting back and minimising the amount of shrubbery in the boarders as you might be able to tell

Would anyone recommend a treatment? Or spiking the lawn at all? Would this speed up the recovery of the dry patches?

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/p9/t5bzyvtv0gmd.png

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/o0/c3jigvecxy61.jpg

Image: https://us.v-cdn.net/6030279/uploads/editor/zn/rlgu4x0weg3k.jpg

JennyJ · May 2023

Are your mower blades sharp? I think I see torn brown tips on the grass blades in the closeup pics which will tend to give an overall faded appearance. It looks also like some of it at least is the kind of coarse "stemmy" grass that just doesn't do well cut close because the lower stems are strawy brown and close cutting reveals them in all their glory. Sorry I don't know what it's called, but I have some in my grass in amongst the finer stuff.

If the ground is hard and compacted, spiking might help particularly if you can do it before a good downpour so that the water can get down into the soil and encourage deeper rooting, but it's bloomin' hard work to do a big area (at least, it is for me).

rossdriscoll13 · May 2023

@GGareth you need to scarify to remove the brown/dead grass, aerate the lawn and overseed any bare patches. Feed with liquid seaweed. The reason football, cricket rugby etc teams pitches can be mowed so low is because of the mix of seed used. The types of lawns that homeowners have aren’t designed to be mowed low because of the seed used. Unless you use a sports mix of seed.
Oh and to even out lumps and bumps you need to use topsoil NOT compost as compost rots down and so will not level out the lawn.

MrMow · May 2023

rossdriscoll13 said:

@GGareth you need to scarify to remove the brown/dead grass, aerate the lawn and overseed any bare patches. Feed with liquid seaweed. The reason football, cricket rugby etc teams pitches can be mowed so low is because of the mix of seed used. The types of lawns that homeowners have aren’t designed to be mowed low because of the seed used. Unless you use a sports mix of seed.
Oh and to even out lumps and bumps you need to use topsoil NOT compost as compost rots down and so will not level out the lawn.

Can you explain why sports mix turf seed is different to common lawn seed.

For example Fescue/ rye /Bent grass these are all common seed available to all and is the basis of all lawns and sorts surfaces.

JennyJ · May 2023

Fescues and bents are generally fine-bladed grasses that can be cut pretty short and I find them a bit more shade- and drought- tolerant than dwarf ryegrass, but they aren't particularly hardwearing so not good for lawns that children and dogs play on, for example. I use a bents/fescues mix to overseed mine after scarifying in the autumn, if I can be bothered, but I still get some of the coarse stuff in there as well (and violets, speedwells etc).

GGareth · May 2023

This is amazing, thanks all for your comments, I'm glad I asked. Google seems massively over complicated things like this.

Thanks for the clear steps @rossdriscoll13 - It seems it might be too close to summer now to do this, do you think? We definitely want to use the garden this summer so scarifying might need to wait until Autumn.

Question is; would you wait to do the whole process (scarify, aerate, overseed, feed) or can I just skip the scarify part and get the lawn looking a bit better now?

rossdriscoll13 · June 2023

@MrMow I work for a Premier League Football team. The way sports pitches differ from domestic lawns is because in the PL we use hybrid pitches. A mix of 95% natural grass and 5% synthetic. Wembley is 97% natural and 3% synthetic. This is used not just in football but American football, Rugby.... this allows the pitches to be as short as is wanted and for them to recover more quickly between games. This is not available to homeowners and domestic gardens. Sports mix grass seeds that are available to buy are what used to be used in sports. Not anymore.

Blue Onion · June 2023

@rossdriscoll13 How amazing, I had to look up pictures to understand what hybrid grass is.. how crazy. Maybe it will be the next thing for home gardens rather than fully synthetic grass. The best of both worlds? Or at least some compromise?

Patchy, dry + light coloured lawn

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